Transistors are commonly used in circuitry as switches and to amplify an electrical signal, among other uses. Many transistors, such as field effect transistors and bipolar junction transistors, have three terminals: a gate, a source, and a drain. The source and drain terminals can be coupled to a first potential, supplied, for example by a voltage device such as a battery. The gate terminal can be connected to a second potential, supplied, for example, by a second voltage device. Supplying the second potential to the gate of the transistor applies charge to the gate. Once the applied charge increases above a threshold, the gate opens to allow current to flow through the source and drain terminals as provided by the first potential. When current is flowing through the source and drain terminals, the transistor can be referred to as “on.” When the second potential is no longer applied to the gate terminal and the charge is removed from the gate, current ceases to flow through the source and drain terminals. When current is not flowing through the source and drain terminals, the transistor can be referred to as “off.”
Typically, when switching a transistor from being on to off, the charge that was applied to the gate is actively drained from the gate. For example, an electrical ground can be electrically connected to the gate which pulls charge that was applied to the gate from the gate. This charge is then lost, becoming effectively lost energy. In applications where transistors are rapidly switched between on and off states, the energy lost through draining the charge can become significant.